Sister Vengance
by Taylors-Princess
Summary: Tyleen Wagner OC and Thorn Black OC set out on a journey to find the entity known only as Sister, who has taken mutants from all over the world captive, including the residence at Xaviers School for Gifted Youngsters.
1. Chapter 1

"The mitochondria do what? Anyone?"

"They create energy for the rest of the cell."

"Exactly. And what is the energy called?"

"ATP."

"Very good."

Tyleen Wagner stood at the white board in the front of her classroom, a poorly drawn diagram of an animal cell in red dry erase marker behind her. Her three deep purple fingers clutched the marker, ready to write any important notes on the board for her students to copy or ignore, her glowing yellow eyes scanning over the room.

"Toby, please refrain from disintegrating your study sheets," she called out to one of her students whose hands were now sprawled out over a thin layer of dust on his desk. "You're not graduated until Thursday."

"Come on, Mrs. W," the student retorted, a cocky smile on his face, "it's not like any of this applies to us. There's not one person in here with a cell that looks like that."

"Yes, well, if you don't pay attention in my class you won't have any cells to speak of at all."

The class laughed good heartedly at the threat, the bell joining in with their chimes.

"Alright," Tyleen said over the noise, "get on out of here. Final's on Thursday. Study sheets due tomorrow. Toby," she added, handing him a new worksheet, "this is the last replacement I'm giving you. Your grade goes down after this."

"Sure thing, Mrs. W," he said, taking the paper and turning to join the rest of the students who were filing out of the room. Some walked through the door, some flew through above the heads of the others, and a few simply transported themselves to their dormitories on the other end of the school. Tyleen sighed deeply and dropped into the nearest chair, her tail twitching idly near her feet. Seniors were almost more work than they were worth on the last week of school. It took all of her effort to get them to pay attention enough to know what to study for the final exams. She would certainly miss them in class when they were gone, but at the moment the last day seemed months away.

"Tyleen?"

Tyleen looked up at the mention of her name, but when she saw no one else in the room, she realized the voice was coming from within her.

"Yes, Professor?" she thought.

"May I see you in my office please?"

"Of course."

Tyleen heaved herself onto her feet and walked out into the hallway, still scattered with students rushing to the living courters of Xavier Academy. She envied them. All of them. She had not until the last few years experienced what they took for granted every day: the safety of being surrounded by their own kind. Here, no one was looked down upon or feared for their wings or their ability to change the color of their own hair at will. Having skin made of steel was no more of an oddity than breathing, and willing water vapor to ice was considered a blessing during the hot summers at the academy. More than all this, however, she envied their human-like appearance. Once they graduated, most of the students here were free to reenter into the human cities unnoticed. Every class period, she looked upon her students and her heart ached at their physical normalcy.

Not wanting to think on this subject any longer, she stopped in her tracks and closed her eyes. Her bones ground together, shrinking and hollowing themselves, and feathers began to sprout from her skin. In under two seconds, her body had finished taking the falcon's form, and she leapt into the air and flew as fast as she could to Professor Xavier's office.

"Welcome, Tyleen," the Professor said, not looking up from the paperwork on his desk as the raptor perched on the back a chair in the corner of the room. "Thank you for coming so quickly."

He placed his hand on the joystick on the arm of his wheel chair, an addition with no purpose other than to provide an excuse for the wheelchair seemingly sourceless movement due to the Professor's telekinetic gift, and slowly wheeled himself around to face Tyleen. She had returned to her normal form and sat, relaxed and cross-legged, in the chair on which she had perched.

"You wanted to see me?" she asked.

"I would just like to check up on how your extracurricular studies have been progressing," he explained with a small smile.

"I've been able to hold the new form for almost eight hours without fatigue," Tyleen reported happily.

"And Logan does not know?" The phrase was more of a statement than a question.

"You read my mind?" Tyleen asked.

"No," the Professor laughed. "I just know you well enough to know you wouldn't tell him until you were finished."

"Do you think it's important that he know, sir?"

"Not unless you have a problem keeping secrets from your husband."

"It won't be a secret for long. Besides, he's been busy with the rest of the X-Men lately. It won't be hard to find time to practice."

The Professor nodded, and then his face lit up in mock recollection of the information he had called her in to tell her in the first place.

"Speaking of which, I believe you will be pleased to know that one member of the team has just recently returned from an assignment in Alaska. I believe you will find him in the library."

"Hank?" Tyleen was instantly on her feet. "He's back?"

"About an hour ago, yes," the Professor smiled.

"Oh, Professor thank you!" Tyleen shouted and then dashed out of the room. In mid stride her humanoid appearance was lost and a sleek cheetah tore through the halls. It did not take her long to reach the library. There, sitting on the overstuffed sofa in the middle of the room surrounded by an obnoxious stack of books, sat the Beast. The cheetah was across the room in three bounds and pounced into her friends lap, nuzzling his face and purring loudly.

"Hey, Morph," Hank laughed, scratching Tyleen behind the ears. "Missed you too."

Tyleen changed back to her normal form once more, curled up in Hank's lap like a child, her arms wrapped around his furry torso.

"I'm so glad you're back! How was Alaska?"

"Cold," he joked, and hugged her tightly. "How's Logan."

"Out with the team, as usual."

"Good. Wouldn't want him to get jealous when I take my little girl out for dinner."

"Out to dinner where?"

"Well...I haven't thought about that yet," Hank admitted. "Where would you like to go?"

Tyleen's smile faltered a bit.

"Why don't we just eat in tonight?" she suggested. "I'll cook for you."

Hank smiled knowingly.

"I'll cook," he said. "I remember what happened last time you tried to make me something. We had to call Jean and Ororo in to clean up that mess."

This comment seemed to lift Tyleen's spirits.

"Alright. Sounds great."

"Let me put these books away," Hank said, "and I'll start something nice for you. Meet me in my room in an hour, ok?"

"I need to change out of my teacher's outfit anyway. Heels are a pain with cloven feet."

"I can imagine," Hank laughed, lifting Tyleen off of his lap. "I'll see you in an hour then."

"Absolutely."

Tyleen gave him one more hug and practically skipped out of the library. After six months of no contact with her best friend and mentor, she couldn't contain her excitement to spend the evening with him. Not to mention it would be nice to not have to eat overcooked microwave dinners.

She opened the door to her room and stopped dead. Slumped on the edge of the king size bed, holding a letter in his hand, the envelope on the floor, was her husband.

"Logan..." Tyleen stammered. "How...aren't you supposed to be on a mission?"

Logan looked up from the letter, his face dark.

"We need to talk."


	2. Chapter 2

Tyleen ran her three fingered hand though her course, indigo hair. She had hoped this wouldn't happen. In fact, she had relied on it. It was the secrecy of the situation that aided to it's completion.

"I wasn't expecting you back so soon," she said, trying not to sound concerned.

"Sit."

Tyleen sighed and sat next to Logan on the bed, the silk sheets folding and crumpling beneath her. The sunlight from the window fell across them like a theater spotlight. _Time for your monologue, Ty. To bad you never thought to memorize your lines._

There was a long moment of silence as both of them struggled to find something to say. It was Logan who finally spoke.

"Jean said that she could sense that you were hiding something from me."

Tyleen heaved a sigh. Damn that telepath.

"Logan, I--" Tyleen began, but Logan cut her off.

"I found this when we got back. It's a letter from Berkley College expressing congratulations for receiving the position as a Zoology professor. Is this a joke?"

"I got the job?" Tyleen cried, her momentary excitement overriding her judgment. She snatched the letter out of Logan's hands and scanned over it, looking for any sign that he might be wrong. She found none. "I got the position. This is amazing!"

"Tyleen," growled Logan, wrenching her back to reality, "what's going on? How are you going to teach at a human school?"

"Logan, you know that it's been a dream of mine," said Tyleen.

"Yes, and I'm happy for you," Logan replied, "but I also know your fear of rejection because of your mutation."

"Logan, I can't discuss this right now. Hank and I are having dinner."

"Does he know?"

"Know what?"

"This big secret you're hiding."

"No. No one knows. It's between myself and the Professor. I'll tell you someday soon, Logan, I promise. Just not now. I need you to trust me."

"But you can't trust me?"

"It's not like that. I promise. The project is almost finished."

"What project? Why can't you tell me?"

Tyleen furrowed her brow and looked at the floor.

"Fine," she sighed. "I had wanted it to be a surprise. I've been training to appear human."

Logan looked shocked and rather confused.

"Ty, you can only turn into animals. The board at Burkley is going to be a little suspicious if a gorilla walks in on the first day of school."

"Ape is only part of it. There's also fox and canine."

"What are you talking about?"

"Combining traits of different animals to look human. It's basic, really. You just need to know what parts to put together."

Logan eyed her, skeptical.

"Show me," he said.

"I can't," Tyleen pleaded. "I'm not done yet. I want it to be perfect when I show you."

"Ty--"

"Logan, please."

The two stared at each other for a long time.

"Alright," Logan finally said. "I trust you. But you will show me when you're done?"

"I promise."

"Ok."

They kissed briefly, and Tyleen was happy to sense that all the tension in the room had almost entirely lifted.

"I should chang for dinner," Tyleen said. Logan grinned and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her close into him.

"Would you like some help with that?"

Tyleen smiled back up at him. "I know you better than that. I've only got forty minutes until Hank is expecting me. That's not nearly enough time for you."

Logan kissed her again and released her.

"Then you owe me."

"Sure thing." She winked, and Logan threw her one last smile as he left the room. In no real hurry, Tyleen took her laying out her clothes for the evening. She knew Hank would feel insulted if she dressed up at all. Instead, she slid into a pair of kaki cargo pants that were just a little bit baggy. All of her bottoms had to fit that way or else there was no room for her tail. Feeling it was the only control she had over her appearance, she like to hide it whenever possible. Her brother, Curt, had never seemed to completely understand why she had this personal vendetta against herself. Then again, he had practically grown up here, in the safety of the academy walls.

With a deep sigh, she sat back down on the edge of the bed. She ran her hand over her purple stomach, up over her black bra to her scaled chest. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on her hand, and suddenly she was feeling through five points of contact instead of three. She opened her eyes and held her hand in front of her face. It was beautiful...pale...human. She stared at it for just a moment more, and then changed it back. She grabbed a black shirt, pulled it on, and left the room.


	3. Chapter 3

Tyleen turned down the hallway away from her room. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a shadow on the wall begin to shrink and rolled her eyes as a pale young girl dressed in obnoxious amounts of black materialized before her.

"Learning to look human, huh?" she asked. "How's that going?"

"Hello, Thorn," said Tyleen, doing nothing to hide her agitation. "Have you forgotten the rule about going into other peoples room without them knowing? Or do I have to send you to Professor Xavier and have him remind you?"

"Don't get your panties in a bunch," Thorn huffed. "I wasn't in your room. I was listening outside your door."

"Well we'll have to make an eavesdropping rule then, won't we? What do you want?"

"Why would you assume I want something?" Thorn asked, pouting, the attempted innocence on her face not aided at all by the piercings and raccoon makeup. Tyleen raised one eyebrow and said nothing.

"Fine," Thorn said, brushing her long braided hair off of her shoulder with the back of her hands. "I wanted to know if you've seen Shine anywhere."

"Why didn't you just ask that to begin with."

Thorn grinned deviously.

"I like to pester you."

Tyleen pushed her to the side and walked past her. Theo and Thorn, or as they called each other, Shine and Shadow, were Tyleens biggest problem students. Their powers to travel through light and darkness respectively made it quite easy for them to end up in places they shouldn't be. They often used this to their advantage, as both of them were notorious pranksters.

"No, I don't know where your brother is," she said without turning around. "And I can't say that I'm sorry for that."

Thorn disintegrated back into the shadows with after throwing Tyleen one last dirty look. Tyleen continued on her way through the corridors, her bare feet padding against the tile. She was extremely grateful to be out of those constricting heels. She didn't know how humans could do it. Then again, they didn't have cloven feet.

She didn't bother knocking when she came to Hank's living courters. It was just one of those unnecessary formalities that the two of them had gotten rid of. Hank was her dearest friend, and the first person she had ever learned to trust. Well, this first person who had deserved to be trusted, anyway.

"B?" she called, closing the door behind her. "Where are you?"

"I'm in here!" he called from the other room. Beast was one of the only professors at the academy who had more than just a bedroom to call his home. It was only one room larger, but Xavier had granted it to him mainly because of his massive body size. That, and the size of his personal library. Apparently the school library, which took up an entire wing, wasn't quite big enough for Beast.

"Something smells delicious," Tyleen said, walking into the second room. "What'd you make?"

"Fettucini with sautéed vegetables. It's not much, I know, but I wanted something I could make quickly." Hank put two plates on the table and motioned her to her seat.

"You didn't have to rush, you know," Tyleen lauged. "It's only four thirty."

"Is it really?" Beast pulled his sleeve back and looked at the watch strapped to his thick wrist. "Aw, Ty, I'm sorry. I guess I wasn't paying attention to the time. I thought it was later than that. We don't have to eat now if you're not hungry."

Tyleen sat him down at the table and took her place in the chair across from him. "I didn't have much of a lunch. It's ok."

Hank stabbed one of the vegetables on his plate. "So, Morph--" he began, and stopped when he looked up and saw Tyleen's head bowed in front of her folded hands. "Oh, right. I forgot. Sorry."

Tyleen smiled to herself and finished her prayer, tracing the form of a cross over her chest and face.

"You and your brother," Hank chuckled.

"So what were you doing in Alaska?" Tyleen asked, changing the subject.

"Researching the Bermuda Triangle."

"Really, Hank, what were you doing?"

"That's really what I was doing."

"Fine," Tyleen sighed, "don't tell me."

"We didn't find much if it makes you feel better. How's your meal."

"Sure beats pot pies," she laughed.

For the next three hours, the two friends ate and talked and laughed. Beast wanted to know all about the students and the school. How were the other X-Men doing? Did Tyleen have any plans for the summer? Tyleen told him as much as she knew, filling him in on everything that thad happened in the two months he was away. The light in the room faded as the sun began to disappear outside the window, but the growing darkness was unnoticed by the pair chatting away in the kitchen. It wasn't until Tyleen moved across the room and tripped over a chair that they even realized they should turn on a light.

"Oh wow, it's already dark!" Tyleen exclaimed.

"It's just about eight."

"I should probably head back. Logan just returned from his assignment today, too, and I'm sure he'll be wanting some attention."

"Alright," Hank said, and scooped her off her feet in a hug.

"B, it's so good to have you home again," Tyleen whispered, a warm smile spreading over her face. "I missed you so much."

"I missed you too, Morph," Beast replied, putting her back down.

"You know you're the only one who calls me that when we're not in uniform right?" Tyleen asked, moving toward the door and making sure to avoid any chairs.

"Would you prefer something else?" Hank shrugged. "How about Deutsch?"

Tyleen lauged.

"I wasn't complaining," she said.

Beast smiled for a moment, but it seemed too heavy for him and fell almost immediately.

"I want to give you something, Ty," he said quickly.

Tyleen's face dropped too as she gazed into his dark eyes.

"What is it?"

Hank reached into his pocket and pulled out a small silver necklace. At the end of it dangled a thin, silver circle two inches diameter. Its shine, however, was dulled by a multitude of scratches across its surface.

"What is this?" Tyleen asked as Beast placed it in her open hand.

"It's important. I don't know if you'll ever need it. I hope you never will. But just in case, alright?"

Tyleen eyed him, looking for some sort of explanation. She found none.

"Wear it. Never take it off."

Tyleen nodded. "Ok."

That seemed to satisfy Beast's worries. He gave a small smile and opened the door for her.

"Give Logan my regards, alright?" he asked.

"Sure. Have a good night, Hank."

"You too Morph."

With that, Tyleen walked back to her room where her husband would be waiting.


End file.
